Dust Spots on Photos

[brianmiller68]

I have the X-T1 along with multiple Fuji lenses.  I am recently experiencing dust spots on my photos when I import them into Lightroom.  My question is, since the X-T1 is a "mirrorless" camera, there is no mirror to clean - correct?  Is it possible I have dust on my sensor?  Or is it more likely the dust or marks are on my lenses?  How do you keep your Fuji camera and lenses clean?  What do you recommend for me to keep my camera and lenses in  their best working order?  Thanks!

[jfoxshoots]

It would be dust on the sensor, it happens on any camera with interchangeable lenses. First use a rocket blower to try to dislodge any loose dust. If that doesn't work then your options are to send it to Fuji to clean, take it to a shop to clean it, or learn to clean it yourself but keep in mind the sensor can be a sensitive part. Dust on the sensor is inevitable no matter what you do, however keeping the rear element of your lens, the lens mount, the camera mount, the rear lens cap, and the camera body cap all as clean as possible will help keep dust off the sensor. I also suggest changing lenses with the camera facing down and off.

[milandro]

As jfoxshoots says above you can certainly have dust or any other particles ( water, oil) on your sensor.

 

The presence or absence of a mirror is immaterial when it comes to dust.

 

In any case you wouldn’t solve the problem of sensor dust or particles by cleaning the mirror... how did you get this idea? Dust on the mirror does nothing to the picture!

 

You would need to clean the sensor in any of the two camera systems ( Dslr or mirrorless) to get rid of the dust on the sensor and in that respect not having a mirror is an advantage because you don’t have to lift it.

 

Despite the fact that some think that the mirror actually acts as a barrier, it drives in dust by moving up and down so it might actually be more a problem than it is a protection.

 

You are right, dust on pictures can also be at the back of the lens, this is not as rare as one may think! If you use extreme wideangles and very closed apertures you will actually see the shadow cast by a spec of dust or a hair on the real lens element , both things have happened to me when using the 10-24 and the 12mm Samyang.

 

But that is easy to clean.

 

So every digital camera with interchangeable lenses has the potential to drive in dust or droplets of condensation every time you change lens. Weather Resisting cameras and lenses might offer some protection but ultimately when you change lenses you might always get dust on the sensor. Zooms are also dust cannons, when you move the lens elements inside you are displacing air and with air comes... dust! 

 

So it is not if you get dust but when.

 

This is why every digital camera has a more or less efficient way to “ clean” the sensor by vibrating it at ultra fast speed. The theory is that you do pretty much what a dog does when coming out from water, he vibrates its skin and shakes off the water. But although sensors are very smooth and would certainly be good at shaking off dry dust if dust is wet or there is both dust and moisture in the air then the opposite will happen, because the sensor is very smooth wet particles will adhere very tenaciously.

 

However better safe than sorry.

 

You can have it active or non active and if active it can be set to vibrate before and or after switching the camera or both ( I have it on both).

 

Despite this at some stage you will need to clean your sensor.

 

Cleaning the sensor starts, as jfoxshoots mentions, with blowing the dust off but if dust has had the benefit of condensation it will be very much more difficult to get rid of once the specs have adhered to the shiny surface of the sensor. Then you need some more intrusive method.

 

As usual on fora, you are not the first person to experience that. If you were to use the search engine with words like “ dust sensor” or “ sensor cleaning” you get a number of hits.

 

http://www.fuji-x-forum.com/index.php?s=9fea0e2262d15eed04d1680d748f106a&app=googlecse#gsc.tab=0&gsc.q=dust%20sensor

 

http://www.fuji-x-forum.com/index.php?s=9fea0e2262d15eed04d1680d748f106a&app=googlecse#gsc.tab=0&gsc.q=sensor%20cleaning

 

or read an article written here

 

http://www.fujirumors.com/how-to-clean-the-x-trans-sensor/

 

watch some videos and learn that there are gel cleaners ( CAREFUL, some are suitable for Fuji sensors some aren’t! Make sure you know which is which!) and wet cleaners.

 

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